Gb 1472 Ecr60

Introduction The records listed in this volume are what might be described as central records of the College – the minute books, the registers, the statutes and similar material, generated directly by the Provost and Fellows and the New Governing Body. There are, however, equally central records listed elsewhere. The Foundation and Consolidation Charters, and other royal charters, were listed by Noel Blakiston as ECR 39. He included other central records, particularly relating to the building of the College, in ECR 38 and ECR 49. Accounting records to 1642, including the audit rolls up to 1505, when they were replaced by books, are listed as ECR 61 and later accounting records as ECR 62. Papers produced by individual Provosts, Vice-Provosts and Fellows (though there are very few of this last category) will be found as COLL/P, COLL/VP or COLL/FELL as appropriate. The papers of officers such as the Bursar (COLL/B), Registrar(COLL/REG) and other College servants are also separately listed. The catalogue of the College’s archives (now COLL/ARCH/1) compiled in 1724 by Thomas Martin (1697 – 1771) mentions the central records that existed at the time but does not list them individually. Binding, indexing and annotation of the registers in particular show clearly that their importance and value were recognised. Seal books, minute books and lease books were also carefully preserved. However, unbound papers were less well served by a storage system that was essentially organised by estate and were allowed to accumulate in considerable confusion until very roughly sorted by Noel Blakiston into boxes covering ten year periods. Provost Marten removed some items to the Provost’s Lodge and although they were eventually returned to the strong room they remained separate. There was therefore little to go on when trying to recreate the original order (described indeed by Provost Hawtrey as `a system of higgledy-piggledy’) and the arrangement is largely artificial. Some items relating to resumptions were found among estate records by Noel Blakiston and catalogued there but they have been noted in the appropriate place here for the sake of completeness. Noel Blakiston worked principally on the records of individual estates, producing a series of typescript volumes, one per estate or group of estates. His final volume, ECR 58, was a translation of the Statutes. The College’s first full-time archivist, Patrick Strong, continued the series to ECR 65, but although he left some drafts for ECR 60 he never completed it. I have drawn gratefully on his work. Historical background The foundation charter (ECR 39/3) envisaged a college of a Provost and ten priests, four clerks, six choristers, twenty-five poor scholars with a master and twenty-five poor men. By the time the Statutes were approved in 1452/3 these numbers had increased to ten chaplains, ten clerks, sixteen choristers, seventy scholars and a second teacher, and thirteen almsmen. The original ten priests were renamed priest fellows, and it was the Provost and Fellows who governed the College and managed the estates as well as being responsible for the extensive religious services. The number of fellows was reduced to seven in the hard times that followed the accession of Edward IV. The Public Schools Act of 1868 (31 & 32 Vict.c.118) required the Provost and Fellows to appoint a New Governing Body to carry out reforms, or to have one imposed. They chose to appoint one, and possibly in deference to the founder’s original plans it had ten 1 members, the Provost and four of the existing Fellows and five outsiders. These outsiders were not resident and had no financial interest; they were, in fact, to be a governing body in the modern sense. Oxford University, Cambridge University, the Lord Chief Justice and the Royal Society each nominated one member. The Statute approving their appointment was sealed by the Provost and Fellows on 18 May 1869 and approved by the Queen in Council on 7 October 1869. The New Governing Body proceeded to reform the school, overhauling everything from the curriculum and examinations to the age of entry, and also to revise the Statutes, many of which had inevitably become hopelessly unworkable over the years. The Provost and Fellows continued to manage the estates and care for the buildings and the internal economy of the College (in the sense of the Provost, Fellows and scholars).Even the Special Commissioners appointed under the Act recognised the awkwardness of this division, by which the Provost and Fellows owned the land but the New Governing Body directed how the income was spent, and if they felt that a sale was needed had to requisition the Provost and Fellows. However, they initially rejected a proposal that under the new Statutes the members of the New Governing Body should become the Provost and Fellows although this was what eventually was decided. Under the 1871 Statutes in addition to the four nominees the Provost of King’s College Cambridge was Senior Fellow ex officio, the masters elected a representative (not one of the masters), and the remaining four places were filled by the Fellows themselves. In 1904, when the Statutes were again revised, the Vice-Provost was added to the Fellows and this is still the composition of the Fellows today. The new Statutes were approved by the Queen in Council on 3 November 1871. They gave the existing Fellows equal powers to deal with all matters not specifically reserved to the New Governing Body (as they still were called, presumably to distinguish them from the old Fellows, even though they were now strictly speaking Fellows themselves). In practice, being resident, the old Fellows dealt with much of the estate work and internal matters but members of the New Governing Body began to attend their meetings, which became known as College meetings, and eventually took place four times a year. When the last original Fellow died in 1901, and with him any possible ambiguity, it was resolved to discontinue meetings of the New Governing Body and transact all business in meetings of the Provost and Fellows. This resolution was embodied in the Statutes of 1904. Further reading : Tim Card : Eton Established (John Murray, 2001) Eton Renewed (John Murray, 1994) Henry Maxwell Lyte : History of Eton College (Macmillan & Co., 4th ed., 1911) Report of the Public Schools Commission (HMSO, 1864) 2 ECR 60/1 STATUTES OF ETON COLLEGE Introduction From approximately 1452 until 1871 the College was governed by a set of statutes approved by its founder Henry VI. A translation of these statutes, made by Noel Blakiston, forms ECR 58, and his introduction to that volume should be consulted not only for its account of the statutes themselves but also for its description of the various copies and nineteenth century printed editions available to him. In one respect, however, this work has been superseded. Blakiston refers to strong evidence of the existence of a set of statutes earlier than the final text (though that text was known as the Liber Originalis or first book) and in 1975 just such a set was discovered in the library of St. John’s College Cambridge. The Master and Fellows presented the manuscript to Eton in October 1976 and it now forms Ms.300. Dr. James Clarke, who has produced a description and analysis of the manuscript, suggests that it was originally drawn up between 1444 and 1446 and that the numerous additions and alterations in it reflect changes in the administration of the College in its early years rather than a major reassessment of its role. The Liber Originalis was thus the culmination of a long process rather than a completely new start. In 1869, in obedience to the Public Schools Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vic. c.118), the Provost and Fellows appointed a New Governing Body whose first duty was to make a new set of statutes. These were approved by the Queen in Council on 3 November 1871 and the last meeting held under the old statutes was 21 November 1871. From that date the Founder’s statutes were entirely repealed. A number of amendments to these new statutes were found to be necessary and these were consolidated in a new set of statutes approved on 24 October 1904. Again following various amendments, a revised set was approved on 3 August 1945 and the College is now governed by statutes approved on 24 October 1973, again somewhat amended. A fifteenth – century working copy of the Liber Originalis, now known as the Vice-Provost’s book (ECR 60/1/2), contains several subsequent documents of importance, notably relating to the long-running complaints of the Fellows of King’s College Cambridge about their rights to Eton fellowships. A dispensation of George I permitting a married Head Master, found loose, may have originally been inserted in this volume (ECR 60/1/7). There are also two seventeenth century copies of the statutes and (ECR 60/1/5) one of three transcripts made in the eighteenth century by Roger Huggett, one of the conducts. The other two, in the British Library and the Bodleian Library, contain comments absent from the Eton copy on the Fellows’ disregard for the Statutes, and were the source for the first printed transcription in 1818, found as Appendix (A) to the Fourth Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Education of the Lower Orders. William Roberts, Vice-Provost 1818 – 1833, made a further transcription in 1819 (ECR 60/1/6) and another eighteenth century transcription was presented by King’s College in 1990 to mark Eton’s 550th anniversary (ECR 60/1/19/3).

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